Hand truck for carrying box-on-end stacks



Marh 2, 1943.

l G. R. wooDs HAND TRUCK FOR CARRYING BOX-ON-ENDl STACKS Filed Deo.15,1941 2 sheets-sheet 1 March 2, 1943. G. R. -woons RAND TRUCK RoRCARRYING Box-oN-END sTAcxs 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l Filed Deo.

Patented Mar. 2, 1943 HAND TRUCK FOR CARRYING BOX-ON-END STACKS GilbertE.. Woods, Whittier, Calif., assignor to Food Machinery Corporation, SanJose, Calif., a corporation of Delaware Application December 15, 1941,Serial No. 422,996

Claims.

This invention relates to hand trucks used in packing houses andwarehouses for handling fruits packaged in boxes ready for shipping andin loading these boxes into cars and removing the same therefrom.

This invention is particularly useful in handling packed boxes of citrusproducts as these are customarily put' up at present and it willaccordingly be illustrated and described as thus used.

It is common practice in the United States to pack citrus fruits inshipping cases with what is known as an overlled or crown pack in whichthe fruit holds the lid in outwardly arched conformation after the endsof the lid are nailed to the ends of the b-ox. After the box is thuslidded, it is customary to place a metal strap over the middle of thelid and secure the ends of the strap to the sides of the box. Untilrecently it was common practice, since the time this package was firstevolved, to place these boxes on-end in packing them in railway cars andto batten the lower layer of boxes in the car by wooden battens tackedto the upper ends of these boxes before loading a second layer of boxes,also placed on-end, on top of the rst layer. When loading in this mannerit was the general practice at the lidder to stack the packed boxes withthese lying on their sides and de-` liver this stack by hand truck tothe floor of the car where the boxes were individually removed from thestack and positioned on-end in whichever layer was being formed at thattime in the car.

Recently it has been found that battening may be dispensed with inloading packed boxes of citrus in railway cars so that the boxes in theupper layer may rest directly on the boxes in the lower layer. Thefunction formerly performed by the battens is now taken care of byblocks nailed to the car wall and steel straps nailed on the inner facesof these blocks, these straps snugly engaging each of the two layers ofboxes and their ends tied together to tightly encircle these layersafter the car has been loaded and before the doors are closed.

It is an object of my invention to provide a means for loading packedboxes of citrus fruits in railway cars in the new form hereinabovedescribed which will eliminate the necessity of re-handling boxes afterthey are delivered to the car. Y

It is another ob-ject of this invention to provide a hand truck by whichone or more plural stacks of packed boxes of citrus placed on-end may betrucked from one point to another without breaking down or disturbingthe form of the stacks.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a hand truck bywhich two stacks of packed boxes of Ycitrus with the boxes in each stackarranged on-end and resting one on the other may be picked up andtransferred from one point to another and there set down withoutdisarranging thesestacks.

A yet further object of this invention is to provide a hand truck bywhich two stacks onend of packed boxes of citrus may be transferred froma packing house or warehouse into a railway car or truck and set down inthe proper relation with the balance of the load in the car, and withoutthe necessity of rehandling these boxes in order for them to be properlyincorporated with said load.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a hand truck bywhich either one or two stacks on-end of packed boxes of citrus may bepicked up and transported from point to point and then set down withoutdisturbing the arrangement of said one or two stacks thus transported.

The manner of accomplishing the foregoing objects, as well as furtherobjects and advantages, will be made manifest in the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

Fig. 1 is afront view of a preferredA embodiment of the hand truck ofthis invention with the latter in clamping engagement with two stackson-end of packed boxes of citrus in readiness for the truck and thesestacks to be tilted rearwardly and the stacks transported elsewhere onthe truck,

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective View of the clamping jawsand operating mechanism of the truck shown in Figs. l and 2 with saidjaws in retracted positions.

Fig. 4 is a horizontal cross-sectional view taken on the line 4 4 ofFig. 1 and illustrating the positions of the truck jaws, both inretracted position and in clamping position, and also illustrating howtwo stacks of packed boxes of citrus on-end may be moved into or removedfrom a space just wide enough to receive the same in a row of stackson-end of similar boxes.

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 5 5 of Figs, 2 and4 and illustrating the cross-sectional contour of the jaws of said truckso as to indicate the reasons for this.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the truck I shown thereincomprises a preferred embodiment of my invention, this including anupright frame Il having wooden side bars I2 joined together by woodenspacers I3 and metal bars |4, I5, |6 and I1. The side bars I2 are alsoprovided with handles I8 andV bearings I9, the latter supporting a shaft20 on which are rotataably mounted rubber-tired wheels 2|. The frontfaces of the side bars I2 are covered bymetal straps 25, slots 26 beingformed in the bars I2 just beneath these straps and between the crossbars I6 and I1.

Slideable in the slots 26 are base bars 30 and 3| of U-shaped clampingmembers 32' and 33.

These members have outer jaws 34 and 35, and inner jaws 36 and 31. Thesejaws are all formed with beveled inner faces, as clearly shown in Fig.5, the reason for which will become apparent in describing the operationof the invention.

c The end of each of the jaws 34, 35, 36 and 31 is provided with arelatively :dat tooth 4|). These teeth on the member 32 extend in thesame direction which is toward the member 33 and, in like manner, thoseon the member 33 extend in the opposite direction and toward the member32. The jaw 31 is disposed above the jawV 36 and the base bars 36 and 3|are recessed respectively at 4| and 42 so that the inner portions oftheseV bars are adapted to have telescopic or overlapping movementrelative to each other in the op eration of the truck.

Pivotally mounted on the bar I6 on pins 50 are double bars and 52, thelower ends of these bars straddling the bars I1 and being pivoted bypins 53 to the base bars30 and 3| of the members 32 and 33. The doublebars 5| and 52 form levers which fulcrum on the pins 59 and are actuatedto shift the members 32 and 33 in-4 wardly and outwardly by toggle links6|) the opposite ends of which are pivoted to the levers 5| and 52 andto a central double slide bar 64. This bar has a central slot65receiving the cross-bars Sand 6 and is guided onV the latter by pins(i6v and 61. are adapted to be locked in their inner'or clampingpositions by the toggle links 6i) A ridingupwardly over dead center, asshown in Fig; 5. Vertical movement ofv the slide bar 64 is effected by aAdepressing pedal 1.0 which is fixed on the rear face of this bar and anelevating pedial 1| which pivots on a bracket 12 which is mounted I onthe bar |1 and shaft 20, (see Figs. 2 and 3).

The pedal 1I is connected to the pedal 10 vby a link 13.

Operation The truck I0, while having awide variety' of uses, isparticularly designed for handling a plurality of on-end stacks ofoverpacked boxes of citrus fruit. As previously pointed out, it is thepresent practice, when loading these boxes in railway cars, to stackthem in two layers, the boxes in each layer being on-end with each boxin the upper layer` super-imposed directly over.

boxes'thus stacked into the car where the boxesV wereV manually' removedfrom this stack and placed in their proper positions in one orthe Yother of the two layers of boxesV b'ein'gload'edin thecar'.

In packing houses'equipped with my inven-` The clamping members 32 and33A to be arched from one end to the other when the ends of the lid arenailed to the box, so as to accommodate the quantity of fruit placed inthe box in excess of that needed to ll it. When the boxes are stackedon-end with the arched lids all in a given direction there is thusprovided a free space between the bottom ends of each adjacent pair ofstacks.

The truck I0 of my invention is adapted to pick up a pair of thesestacks, transport these to any place and set them down in the samerelative positions as those in which they were picked up. To accomplishthis, the truck with the jaws 34, 35, 36 and 31, disposed as shown inFig. 3, is rolled on the wheelsV 2| so as to extend the jaws 36. and 31Vin the free space between the two stacks to be transported on the truckand to extend the jaws 34 and 35 in the spaces just outside of these twostacks,as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4. The operator then leans thetruck forwardly so that the frame Ii is disposed vertically, as shown inFig. 2, and presses his foot downwardly on the pedal 1| which rocks thisfrom the position in which it is shown in Fig. 3 to the position inwhich it is shown in Fig. 2. This lifts the slidebar 64 and expands thetoggle links 66 to shift the clamping members 32 and 33 inwardly withthe result shown in full lines toward the box engaged thereby permitsthose jaws which. are adjacent the archedv lid of one of the boxestoconform to this lid and therebyV permit the tooth 43 on'the end of thisjaw to have an opportunity to extend beneath theadjacent lowercorneredgeof Vthis boxlfV K The toggle link 60; when positiore'da's'shownv inFig. 5, locks the jaws -inthe' stack lclamping po-V sitions in whichthese Vjaws-are shown in full lines in Figs. 1, 2, 4 and 5.l'Ilispermits` the two stacks engaged to be* lifted bodily on the truck"l0 by rocking the latter rearwardly about the' axis of the wheels 2| andthen rolling the'truck and itsloadon these wheels to any point to whichit; is desired to transport these stacks; When ar#V rivingr there, thetruck is halted and rocked for; wardly, gently setting ,down the twostacksronl end carried' thereby. While Figs. 4 and 5'illus; tratethe'manner in which two such stacks Sonend of packed citrusv boxes maybe pickedup, these views also illustrate howvth'esetwo stacksv may bedelivered'into a space in Vafp'artiall'y load' ed railway car just largeenough to receive them.

Having set thestack down in such a spacepth'e truck operator pressesyhis=foot downwardly on' the peda1 1e thus releasing the' toggleiink'stn,

as shown in Fig.` 3, and VVshifting the clamping bringing the jaws'While only a single embodiment of the invention is disclosed in thisapplication, it is to be understood that various modications may be madein this to adapt the invention to other uses than that illustratedwithout departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of theappended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a hand truck, the combination of: an upright frame; wheels on saidframe about which said frame is adapted to be rocked in the operation ofsaid truck; a pair of U-shaped clamping members sldeably mounted on saidframe close to the lower .end thereof, each of said members having anouter clamping jaw and an inner clamping jaw the inner jaws of saidmembers being adapted to by-pass each other; and means for shifting saidmembers toward or away from each other to cause the inner jaw of onemember and the outer jaw of the other member to cooperati'veiy engageopposite portions of the bottom box of a stack of boxes which may bedisposed between said jaws.

2. In a hand truck, the combination of an upright frame; wheels on saidframe about which said i'rame is adapted to be rocked in the operationof said truck; a pair of Urshaped members slideably mounted on saidframe, each of said members having an outer jaw and an inner jaw whichface in the same direction, the inner jaws of said members being adaptedto by-pass each other; and means on said frame for actuating saidmembers so that the outer jaw of each member and the inner jaw of theother member will,

when said members are shifted together, grip a stack of boxes disposedtherebetween, said means incorporating looking means to lock said jawsin gripping relation with any stacks disposed between said jaws.

3. In a hand truck adapted for handling two closely spaced stacks ofboxes on end, the combination of: a carriage; a pair of U-shapedclamping members slidably mounted on said carriage close to the lowerend thereof, each of said members having an outer clamping jaw and aninner clamping jaw; teeth on said jaws adapted to underiie the loweredges of said stacks, the teeth on said inner jaws of said members beingadapted to by-pass each other in the operation of said members; andmeans for shifting said members toward or away from each other to causethe teeth on the inner jaw of one member and on the outer jaw of theother member to cooperatively engage opposite portions of the bottom boxof a stack of boxes which may be disposed between said jaws.

4. A combination as in claim 3, in which said teeth on said inner jawsby-pass each other while both said teeth are in contact with the oor.

5. A combination as in claim 3, in which the tooth on one of said innerjaws is disposed farther frem said carriage than the tooth on the otherof said inner jaws whereby said teeth are able to by-pass each other inthe operation of said truck while said teeth remain in engagement withthe oor.

GILBERT R. WOODS.

